14-AUG-2008
A Different Frame: self portraits
My dear friend Dorothy Walters gave me two MAJOR gifts today. One is a poem she posted on her blog,
"Kundalini Splendor" last Sunday. The other is her finding within those stanzas the perfect title for
my self portraits/daily life book project. When/if my book is published, Dorothy's poem will introduce it and the title will be "A Different Frame: self portraits." I feel her poem speaks not just of me but of so many of us for whom photography is our life. I bet you'll recognize yourself in it...
The Photographer
(for Patricia)
She has transcended body,
left it behind.
She lives in a brain-ferment,
a buzzing hive of mind,
a tossing sea of perception.
She gathers fragments
of the presented world
and translates them
into a new medium,
a cosmos of images
held in a different frame.
In this uncovered order sun
and darkness meet,
old and unaccustomed bleed into
one another's space.
She is the eternal creator,
eyeing, composing, unmaking,
turning life over
into new soil,
new beginnings,
unexpected revelation.
Dorothy Walters
August 9, 2008
12-AUG-2008
riding the bus at night
To me New York is all about the people. Forget the shops, plays, restaurants, museums, and all the hype. People. That's all I saw. All I cared about seeing. Even the photos I wanted to see at the Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography were photos of people. And my most unforgettable moments were spent with people. Once a social worker, always a social worker!
11-AUG-2008
motel self portrait
Is it my imagination or does this image have a similar mood to an Edward Hopper painting? Not to say it's as good as a Hopper, just that it makes me think of him. I took this photo as I was packing up to leave my New Jersey motel on Friday morning. I'd seen the potential for this shot from the first night, but hadn't had time to take it until the very last minute. Does that happen to you? You'll see a possible shot but keep putting off taking it until it's almost too late? I'm glad I caught this one.
10-AUG-2008
time for a chat in Greenwich Village
I haven't been doing much B&W lately but this image just cried out for it. Don't you agree? You know, if I lived in NYC all I'd do is hang out on the streets taking photos like this and the one of Saffire. Actually, in two days time I did my fair share of street shots. It will be awhile before I gather them into a gallery, but it will happen. I promise.
And tonight (Saturday) I'll be sleeping in my own bed for the first time in ten days. Those ten days were touched with magic but it's sweet to be back home with my Eddie. By the way, this was my longest solitary driving trip ever, able-bodied or otherwise. 1300 miles/2092 km all by my lonesome. That tickles the pie out of me!
08-AUG-2008
self portrait on a NYC bus
Friends, it's 1 a.m. and I need to get to bed. Tomorrow is the first day of my long drive home, but I wanted to share a photo from today (Thursday). Since I took so many buses around the City it seemed appropriate to take a self portrait in that environment, hopefully one I can use in my Self Portraits/Daily Life series.
Today I spent hours at the International Center of Photography's current exhibit of Contemporary Japanese Photography & Video. Superb show!!! In the early evening I joined Erica McDonald, another "virtual" friend from David Alan Harvey's "Road Trips" blog, for dinner at a very cool restaurant in Greenwich Village. We talked and talked and talked, and would be there even now if there hadn't been a line of folks waiting for our table! These blog friends are sure turning out to be the real thing.
07-AUG-2008
Saffire
Today (Wednesday) was my first day in NYC and it was spectacular! Not only did I photograph wonderful people like Saffire, whom I met on the streets, but spent timeless time viewing photography in the Museum of Modern Art and hanging around the East Village with Spencer, a "virtual" friend from David Alan Harvey's blog, "Road Trips." And then I joined our very own PBaser Keith Goldstein and his wife Nicole for dinner at a Moroccan restaurant where we discovered the connection we'd forged here is as real as real can be. I've come to believe there is no such thing as virtual!
06-AUG-2008
Carolyn & Jonathan at the Vanderbilt Mansion
How idyllic is this? A classical guitarist--my niece Carolyn's partner Jonathan--playing on the lawn of the Vanderbilt Mansion overlooking the Hudson River in upper New York State on a beautiful August day. That was yesterday (Monday). Today we hiked around a lovely mountain lake in a state park near New Paltz, NY. And now? I'm in a motel across the river from New York City preparing to spend tomorrow with friends from PBase (Keith Goldstein) and from David Alan Harvey's "Road Trips" blog (Spencer Lloyd). Oh my, life is such an adventure!!!
04-AUG-2008
at the Ulster County, NY Fair
Today (Sunday) our workshop moved to the county fair where we were asked to take lots of photos, the contact sheets of which we'll be mailing to Mary Ellen Mark for a critique. I had a very special day, not the least of which was spending quite a bit of time with Mary Ellen, first watching her get her hair braided--see photo--and then having a real heart-to-heart talk about our lives. She also reviewed about sixty 4x6" prints of possible additions to my Self Portraits/Daily Life series. Mary Ellen chose a good number more than had David Alan Harvey in his review last Monday, so now I have some decisions to make. MEM's opinion is certainly something to take seriously. And I will.
Gina Martin on David's blog had predicted that Mary Ellen Mark and I would make a deep connection, and she was right. We plan to stay in touch by email. Actually the entire workshop community formed close bonds. I plan to stay in touch with as many of these wonderful photographers as possible.
Tomorrow (Monday) our niece Carolyn will be driving up here to Kingston, NY with her Significant Other, Jonathan. As I ate dinner tonight at my favorite restaurant in Woodstock, I made a reservation for the three of us at 7 p.m. tomorrow night. The Garden Cafe is run by an exceptionally creative gourmet vegan chef, and since Carolyn and Jonathan are both vegan, it will be perfect. Besides just being in the garden is lovely.
If I were to say in one word what I received in Mary Ellen Mark's workshop, it would be "confidence." Coming just a few days after David Alan Harvey's visit and review of my work, the responses I received from him and from MEM and the workshop participants have given me the confidence to call myself a photographer. I now feel like the real thing. And for that I am deeply grateful.
03-AUG-2008
Like WOW!!!
Photo by Katie Dela Vaughn.
So Mary Ellen Mark loved my work!!! She just kept saying, "This is excellent, really excellent!" We talked a lot about the process, where I want to go with it, but she didn't have one word of criticism, not one. And I learned SO MUCH from her review of everyone's work. I've got pages of quotes and 285 images, but this must suffice for tonight. I am very sleepy and tomorrow I have to get up early because we're all going on a photo shoot at the Ulster County Fair. And now to bed...
02-AUG-2008
Mary Ellen Mark comes to town!
OK, here I am in Woodstock, New York. Yes, THE Woodstock...and believe me, it's like a time warp. Much like Haight-Asbury in San Francisco. Trying desperately to hang onto the vibes of the 60s. Folks still smokin' weed out on the sidewalk. Old guys with white ponytails, lots of ink on their pot-bellied bodies, and glazed looks in their squinty eyes. Young kids with purple hair and piercings on every orifice...and I'm sure on some that I couldn't see. Head shops with lots of tie dye t-shirts and tokin' pipes. Only thing is it all seems meant to sell stuff. Nothing seems real. Except
The Center for Photography at Woodstock where I'll be taking a workshop with Mary Ellen Mark staring at 9 a.m. on Saturday. That place is very real indeed.
It is a beautiful space with a fascinating invitational show called "The Camera Always Lies" curated by Beth Wilson and featuring work by Joan Barker, John Dugdale, Jaanika Peerna, Rob Penner, Julianne Swartz, Sam Sebren & Rite Aid, Kathleen Sweeney, Susan Wides, & Ion Zupcu. And tomorrow my work will join that of fourteen other fortunate photographers in being spread out on a huge table for Mary Ellen Mark to see and critique. What a privilege!
But now I've got to go to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long and wonderful day. I want to be fresh as fresh can be...